Movie Review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

On an ordinary morning in New York City, a quartet of mysterious-looking men in sunglasses step onto the downtown-bound No. 6 subway. The motorman is immediately relieved of his duties. The first person to notice something might be out of the ordinary is Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), the dispatcher at the New York City Transit Authority central office.

He can't make contact with the motorman after the subway suddenly stops in the middle of the tunnel. The hijackers, led by a fast-talking, deeply disgruntled man who goes by the name of Ryder (John Travolta), soon reveal themselves: They want $10 million – or the passengers will start being murdered, one by one.

This is the swift and gripping setup for “The Taking of Pelham 123,” Tony Scott's remake of the 1974 Joseph Sargent thriller starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. (Both films are based on a 1973 novel by John Godey.) Why bother trying to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with? It's the question that every remake must ask, but for once the filmmakers have delivered a completely convincing answer.

Working with screenwriter Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential”) and two extraordinary actors at the top of their games, Scott serves a lightning-fast thriller that feels completely plugged into our modern anxieties about terrorism, political corruption and Wall Street money men run amok.

As the characters' back stories are teased out, we learn that Garber is a Transit Authority executive under suspicion for taking a bribe from a Japanese subway car manufacturer. Ryder seizes upon this information, seeing Garber as a kind of kindred spirit; the hijacker, too, feels as if he was once betrayed by the city of New York.

Refusing to deal with the hostage negotiator (John Turturro), Ryder insists only on talking to Garber. The game of cat-and-mouse that ensues is all the more intriguing, considering the men don't actually appear onscreen together until more than an hour into the film.

Much of the credit here goes to Washington and Travolta, two Hollywood pros who understand the cardinal rule of popcorn filmmaking: Never allow a dull moment. Bulkier through the middle, his face a picture of middle-age regret, Washington does his best work in years as a working-class schlub whose life fell apart the instant he lost grip on his moral compass.

Travolta, meanwhile, rants, preens and showboats his way through the proceedings. The performance is a delicious tour de force.

Working in his characteristically flashy style, Scott speeds up images and slows others, freezing the frame occasionally to let us know how many more minutes are on the clock before Ryder begins slaughtering passengers.

There are a few complaints to be lodged here: The movie goes on about 10 minutes too long; and James Gandolfini, as the cynical mayor, isn't given enough to do. Unlike the greatest of psychological thrillers – “The Silence of the Lambs,” say – the tension between Ryder and Garber never really crawls beneath our skin.

But why complain about a fleet and intelligent mainstream movie that gets so much right? “The Taking of Pelham 123” might not reinvent the action thriller genre. But in some respects it does something better: It pays the genre its due.